Page 71 of All the Right Words
‘Cool. See you then.’
They said goodbye. Gina put the phone down, picked up a sofa cushion and screamed into it. She knew in her gut that she was thoroughly fucked.
***
When Harper came in the following week, it seemed OK. At first. Nothing felt obviously wrong when Gina went to reception to fetch her and Brenda. ‘So, will Olivia be joining us today?’ Harper asked.
‘Umm, no. Sorry. She had a family emergency today,’ Gina said, not trying hard to sell the lie.
‘Sorry to hear that,’ Harper said with mild venom. Gina didn’t blame her in the slightest. Olivia’s cowardice was not OK under these circumstances. For all her talking about how Brenda was the company's saviour, to bail out of meetings was kind of fucked up. Some things were more important than a bit of shame. And Gina should know. She was positively shitting her knickers to take this meeting but taking it nonetheless.
Gina took Harper and Brenda into the conference room, coffee and pastries ready and waiting. They sat down, and Brenda poured a coffee casually, uncharacteristically restrained today. Every meeting Gina had ever had with her, she’d come in red hot. Yet today, she was positively chilled. It was unnerving.
Harper looked a little less relaxed, however. Kind of jittery. She tried to pour some milk into her coffee and spilt it. Brenda laughed and said, ‘Well, can’t cry over it.’ Gina and Harper both tried to laugh at the pun while Harper mopped it up with a napkin.
‘Right, so, we’ve got some gorgeous artwork to show you,’ Gina said once everyone was settled. She picked up her iPad and unlocked it, ready to show them what the art department had sent up.
Brenda cleared her throat. ‘We’ll get to that. First of all, I’d like to chat about something else.’
‘Oh?’ Gina asked, pausing mid-swipe. She wondered if Brenda was about to ask for a bonus or something, which she’d probably get. Brenda’s book was helping without even being out yet. Olivia had had another conference with the majority shareholders about how hotly anticipated the book was and the money they could reasonably expect to make. No one was talking about shutting down anymore. Confidence in Olivia was high. So Gina had been permitted to say yes to all manner of asks right there in the room.
But Brenda didn’t ask for a bonus.
‘I’d like to have a little chat about your boss. And what the hell she’s been playing at with my agent. And howyou’reinvolved.’ Brenda sat back, laced her fingers together, and waited.
Gina looked at Brenda wordlessly. Then she looked at Harper. Harper was leaning in with interest. She’d known this question was coming. They were a team. And they were playing versus Gina, alone.
Gina wanted to faint. But annoyingly, she stayed completely conscious. And about to face the firing squad.
Forty
‘OK, so here’s what we know,’ Brenda said. She was standing in front of a whiteboard fixed to her tiny study wall, waving a marker pen for emphasis. Harper had been placed on a stool to watch the performance. She wasn’t sure they needed the rigamarole, but she appreciated how Brenda had jumped in with both feet on this thing. Harper needed another perspective. Even Brenda’s.
Brenda started writing, the pen squeaking across the whiteboard. ‘First off, Olivia sleazes her way into your knickers.’ The words SLEAZE and OLIVIA were in big letters.
‘We never slept together,’ Harper corrected her, tucking her knees in so that Brenda didn’t trip over her.
‘What? Why not?’ Brenda asked her, slightly appalled.
‘Because I wasn’t sure about it. I wanted to feel certain before I took that step with her,’ Harper explained.
Brenda snorted. ‘I had no idea you were such a puritan. Anyway, she told you some story about a deadly nut allergy.’ She wrote the words ‘NUT ALLERGY’ on the board.
‘It was pineapple, and it just made her extremely itchy,’ Harper corrected.
Brenda tutted and started to rub the word nut out. It didn’t shift. ‘Oh shit, this is a permanent marker!’ she cried. ‘You owe me a new whiteboard.’
Harper didn’t have the energy to question how it was her fault. ‘Fine.’
Brenda crossed out the word ‘NUT’ and put ‘PINEAPPLE’ in much smaller letters to make it fit. She stood back to look at it. ‘The board is already a mess. This part looks a lot easier on detective shows.’
‘Can we push on?’ Harper asked. She was starting to regret this.
‘Alright, hold your horses! So then you see her eat a pineapple like it’s no big deal. But you broke up with her because… OK, this bit is a lot less nun-like.’ She wrote the words, ‘SHAGGED GINA ON A DESK.’
Harper sighed. ‘We didn’t… It didn’t go that far. It was only a kiss. A big one, but...’
Brenda tutted and turned the H into an N and the A into an O to read a messy ‘SNOGGED’. ‘OK?’ she asked sarcastically. ‘Are we accurate now?’
